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Comedian Evelyn: from Stand up to Sex Work?

How would you react if you find out that a woman, who you know, earned money by providing sexual services? Would you discard her or would you accept her voluntary choice of profession? Comedian Evelyn, who decided to support campaign of civic association Odyseus about violence against women working in the sex industry, also asked herself this question.

"In Slovakia, the topic of voluntary provision of sex services for money is often associated with incomprehension, condemnation and prejudice. Whatever the reasons for prejudice and indifference of the public to these women are, they contribute to the fact that violence against these women is tolerated, sometimes even approved. I do not approve such violence, so I decided to support this campaign", says Evelyn.

In the video of the campaign End of violence, time for rights she played a sex worker, who during the narration of her usual working day gets to everyday problems of the women doing sex work. These are, in particular, prejudice, discrimination and various forms of violence from the general public.

"In an onset of discrimination faced by women working in the sex industry, Odyseus is the element which does not judge, does not discriminate, but helps. Nowadays, it is a noble message not to judge someone for being different or for person's life choices", says Evelyn.

Odyseus is a civic association that has been dedicating its work to street based sex workers for 12 years through the Red Umbrella program. It attracts public attention to the need to respect human rights of sex workers and calls for the elimination of violence which is perpetrated on the latter.

"The information obtained during sicial field work shows that women working in the sex industry often encounter violence from customers and passers-by. At the same time, they are also being discriminated by the authorities and institutions that should protect their rights. That is why we have come up with sensitizing campaign in the project End of violence, time for rights, which aims to highlight the fact that violence against women cannot be tolerated under any circumstances. This especially applies to women working in the sex industry, who, in this aspect, are often forgotten", says program coordinator of Red Umbrella Olívia Strelková.

From the 4th of May 2015, the posters that promise seeing of "Hot Stand Up Comedy's“ with hot topic appeared in Bratislava's public transport. They have have a QR code that allows the click-through to campaign video. The aim of the campaign is to contribute to the public debate on this taboo subject.

You can support campaign of the project End of violence, time for rights by

For more information visit the Odyseus website (the informtion is in Slovak).

"While working on the street, I met with various forms of violence and discrimination. Society often turns its back on women working in the sex industry, and therefore it is necessary to talk about our rights and highlight the problems we encounter on a daily basis. It should be noted that the woman working in the sex industry is primarily a woman like any other and does not deserve to be a victim of violence", says Sandra, a woman who has been working in the sex-industry for 20 years and has been working with Odyseus Red Umbrella program for five years.

The project is implemented in partnership with SWAN.

Announcement: "Project End violence, time for rights was supported by the sum of € 44,609.23 from the NGO Fund, which is funded by the EEA Financial Mechanism 2009-2014. Fund Manager is Nadácia otvorenej spoločnosti - Open Society Foundation. The project End violence, time for rights is here to strengthen the rights of vulnerable groups".